North Norfolk

I said I was going to days out.

Yesterday I was in Norfolk and Cley on the Norfolk coast. It was so good there will be more time there, soon.

First, a couple of scene-setting photos from Blakeney, fairly early in the morning:

It was a very high tide:

Then, some birds. First, avocet the Audrey Hepburn of the birding world, according to Chris Packham), lapwing and a rogue ruff in the foreground:

I was using an unfamiliar camera, but was pleased with this immature herring gull:

Geese are what this week is about. The smaller dark-headed ones are pink-foots, that will have arrived from Iceland, Greenland or the north of Russia in the last few days

. The orange billed ones are greylags (scientifically ‘anser anser’, or literally ‘goose goose’: so good they named then twice):

One of my favourite ducks, a gadwall. I think I have pushed the telephoto hard, but this lovely duck is often overlooked and that is a real shame:

And the smallest and sweetest of ducks, the teal (male higher and the female, lower):

There were loads more: marsh harrier, dunlin, meadow pipit, Cetti’s warbler (heard only, of course, although I have seen one this year), buzzard, godwits, greenshank and so much more to keep me happy.